Chapter 8: Making Moral Decisions You Can Defend

Chapter 8: Making Moral Decisions You Can Defend

Overview: Making Decisions

Joann Byrd, “Workshop: The Ethics Tool: Decisions on Deadline,” comments at an American Society of Newspaper Editors conference, April 9, 2003, posted March 31, 2005, on http://www.asne.org/index.cfm?ID=5619

Michael Josephson, an essay on making ethical decisions. The president of the Josephson Institute outlines a process. [may be found under Miscellaneous Resources]

Michael Josephson, Making Ethical Decisions (Los Angeles: Josephson Institute, 2002). A preview and ordering information: http://josephsoninstitute.org/MED/index.html

Bob Steele, “A sharp saw for making sound decisions,” poynteronline, Jan. 1, 2001. “[In carpentry] sharp saws speak of care, precision and the quest for excellence. This notion of preparation, craftsmanship and quality certainly translates to journalism. … Journalists regularly must make tough ethical calls, and it’s imperative that they have the sharpest tools. …” http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=3860&sid=32

Critical Thinking as a Tool in the Decision Process

Rushworth M. Kidder, How Good People Make Tough Choices: Resolving the Dilemmas of Ethical Living (New York: HarperCollins, 1995), 159.

Stephen Klaidman and Tom L. Beauchamp, The Virtuous Journalist (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), 20.

Edmund B. Lambeth, Committed Journalism: An Ethic for the Profession (Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1986), 152.

Barry Beyer, Critical Thinking (Bloomington, Ind: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation, 1995), 8–9.

Jill Geisler, “Critical thinking: What do you mean by that?”, poynteronline, April 26, 2005. Identifies individual skills involved in critical thinking. http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=34&aid=81581

Applying a Step-by-Step Template

Bob Steele, “Ask these 10 questions to make good ethical decisions,” poynteronline, Feb. 29, 2000. http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=4346

Sherry Baker, “Applying [Rushworth] Kidder’s ethical decision-making checklist to media ethics,” Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 12, 4, 197–210. “Contributions in Kidder’s approach include his dichotomy between ethical dilemmas and moral temptations, his tests for right-versus-wrong and right-versus-right issues, his framework by which to clarify values in ethical dilemmas, and his sequencing of the decision-making process.” (Academic databases)

Practicing Decision Skills in Case Studies

Deni Elliott, “All is not relative: Essential shared values of the press,” Journal of Mass Media Ethics 3, 1 (1988), 28–32. (Academic databases)

Christina Hoff Sommers, “Teaching the virtues,” Public Interest, 111 (1993: Spring), 3–13. (Academic databases)

James Carey, introduction to Tom Rosenstiel and Amy S. Mitchell (Eds.), Thinking Clearly: Cases in Journalistic Decision-Making (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), 1–5. A discussion of the case-study method.

Case Study No. 4: Deciding Whether to Identify a CIA Agent

How the author outlines this case, using the decision template in The Ethical Journalist. [LINK TO WORD DOCUMENT]

Scott Shane, “Inside a 9/11 mastermind’s interrogation,” The New York Times, June 22, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/washington/22ksm.html

The New York Times, Editors’ Note, June 22, 2008.

Clark Hoyt, “Weighing the risk,” The New York Times, July 6, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/opinion/06pubed.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=all

Bob Steele, “When principles collide: The NYT and the CIA interrogator,” July 5, 2008. http://poynter.org/column.asp?id=67&aid=146051